Chris
I agree the documentation is lacking on details such as zillions of howtos, because (IMHO) the assumption is that as a “networking guy” you’ve bought Mikrotik as the solution to the job you have already decided you need to do and you already know how networking works, you just need to know how the Mikrotik ROS interface works. I.e. you may have already decided you know about BGP, OSPF and MPLS or Mesh and now need to crack on with implementing it more cheaply than certain other manufacturers such as Cisco.
That is also why there are so many Training courses available. Because it is much easier to learn about what Mikrotik can do while being trained than doing it the hard way, on your own. But, then again, how did I learn in the first place? By playing with it and building real networks - which occasionally broke! But what better way to learn?
However I quickly found that the Mikrotik ROS was capable of so much more, there were loads of things I wasn’t sure with all the options available so started going on Mikrotik training courses.
Never looked back.
Anyway, some ideas for your network plans. If you have RB’s as the CPE it will be easy to implement bandwidth limitation and perform remote diagnostics of your client network. I.e. you can more easily see what is going on when they complain of no internet. I would always throttle bandwidth hogs at source rather than when it is already too late on your backhaul.
Have used the nanostations - very good and very cheap. But due to their popularity, it has brought down the price of Routerboards, so you may find it isn’t so huge a difference any more. Depends on how many you buy. Their Bullets are interesting too. But not used them in anger yet. Just ‘on the bench’.
Interconnect AP sites on 5GHz, 2.4 to the client.
To feed public IPs through to the client, it depends on what you have used for your routing method or if you will be using PPoE for Authentication. You can make a PPoE session give your client a public IP. You could use Proxy-ARP (but don’t). If you are an AS and have a large enough block of public IPs with BGP routing to your ISP, then you can just use ‘plain routing’ to get the small subnets through to your clients router interface.
3 sectored aerials see 1/3rd less noise than an omni. Also your clients will hopefully be spread equally amongst the three, therefore improving the service provided to them all, so each client will see 1/3rd less traffic on the AP. Also means you can put in downtilt. Not easy with an omni as they cost a lot more and you can’t get much downtilt - usually only of the order of 3-5 degs. Also means you can use horizontal instead of vertical polarisation to help with seperation if getting interference.
Whether to use 802.11b/g for the provision to clients is a harder one to decide on. Personally I use b for client connections as it supports more hardware (we do hotspots to mobile users rather than fixed clients) therefore we don’t exclude anyone with PDAs or phones that do not have 802.11g. If you make a decision stick with just one mode. Don’t use mixed b/g. Any connected users using 802.11b will bring a 802.11g user’s connection to it’s knees.
For fixed clients, 802.11g is better as the modulation allows for better error correction due to interfering reflections, plus it’s usually faster.
Good luck with your plans. Where are you located?
Ron.
.
I am usually able to work through them, and it always ends up being a learning experience.